The Impact of Group Support Systems on Corporate Teams' Stages of Development

Through this quasi-experimental field study, we investigated the impact of group support systems (GSS) on the development of two comparable corporate teams solving actual business problems. Tuckman's stages of development were the lens through which we viewed the team-building process. Tuckman maintained that teams go through a developmental schemata of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, and suggested that the way teams develop has a direct impact on both their task and social outcomes. Literature related to GSS and group processes, group characteristics, and task complexity provided the bases for the questions offered. In this field study, meeting sessions were audio-taped, transcribed, and used to paint a picture of the meeting process; to better understand what happened, we interviewed participants. Findings indicate that the two teams developed quite differently and that GSS impacted all stages, but most noticeably the storming stage. The commitment of the teams to the assigned task, group composition, and leadership were identified as moderating factors.